Mayhew says Slay has “a lot of work to do”

Posted by Mike Florio on March 30, 2014, 7:44 PM EST

AP

New Lions defensive coordinator Teryl Austin said in January that cornerback Darius Slay has “a lot of room to improve.” G.M. Martin Mayhew said last week that Slay will need to roll up his sleeves to get there.

“He has a lot of work to do,” Mayhew said at the league meetings in Orlando, via the team’s official website. “I think he’s up to the challenge. He finished up strong for us the last half of the season. I’m looking forward to seeing him this season.”

A second-round pick in 2013, Slay appeared in 13 games with four starts. By not adding any big-name corners in free agency, the expectation is that Slay will start plenty more in 2014.

As Tim Twentyman of the Lions’ website points out, the team will likely play more man-to-man coverage under Austin, which suits Slay’s strengths. The Lions will expect to see more strengths than weaknesses this year from Slay.

Well hopefully Teryl Austin can help him out. Our Secondary (and LB/QB) have always been the most poorly coached positions on this team every single year. I have a hard time thinking that Teryl won’t be able to come up with something to benefit these guys. They need to take a page out of Deion’s philosophy book and teach these men how to play the game, not how to play an area or some kind of contrived inside the box strategy.

We have 5 returning CBs that I’m expecting to get better. Slay was still a bit of a reach as a pick, but that’s ok if Teryl can help him get to the next level.

“Hurricane – let it go, dude. He’s long gone out of Detroit. Long gone.”

You realize Mayhew is a former Millen lackey? Wait, you don’t, you probably know very little about the Lions He got the job because he was already in the organization, and Ford likes to do things the easy way Mayhew was as, or more, responsible for the team’s lack of success as Jim Schwartz was, but successfully made Schwartz the main scapegoat. The only thing saving him are a few draft choices that just about anyone would of made in the situation they were drafting in, although the massive contracts his big 3 have, have limited what they can do with the roster. Lions fans are fooling themselves if they think Mayhew is the best man for the job, most other organizations would of fired him last year.

Chuck Pagano was the defensive backs coach for the Ravens in 2008. Austin was his assistant. During the playoff game against the Titans (who were 13-3 that year) both of them made on the fly adjustments when Samari Rolle went down to injury during the game. They used two rookies-Nakamura and Zbikowski and the Ravens won. Austin knows what he is doing. He is a good coach who will get the most out of his unit.